Thursday, May 8, 2014

The high temperature in Lincoln of 98F on May 7, 2014 was a record high for the date.
The old record was 96F set in 1934.
There are 128 years of data in the data archive.
The 98F was also the hottest for so early in the season.

The following map shows the observed high temperatures on May 7, 2014. Note that southeastern Nebraska was hotter than the desert southwest cities of Phoenix and Tucson.

More text and analysis are located below the temperature map >>>>>>>>>>>>

The state highest temperature on May 7, 2014 was 99F set in Tekama, Nebraska (southeastern Nebraska).
Omaha's high temperature of 96F was also a record for the date. Their old record was 95F set in 1966

This was the first observed temperature of 90F or higher for the year in Lincoln Nebraska and it was 10 days earlier than the average..

Climatology of first 90F or higher for Lincoln, NE
Earliest: March 22
Latest: June 29
Average: May 17

The following graph shows the day of the year of the occurrence of the first 90F or higher temperature in Lincoln for the 128 year period 1887-2014

The following graph shows the day of the year of the occurrence of the
first 90F or higher temperature in Lincoln for the 128 year period
1887-2014 AND it has a trend line (in red) for the last 40 years.
(1974-2014). Although there is year to year variability there is a downward trend (earlier in the year) in the date of first 90F or higher for Lincoln. The trend line shows a trend of 40 days earlier for the first 90F or higher (Day 153 to Day 113) in Lincoln, NE

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Headline: April 2014 was warmer than normal and wetter than normal for Lincoln, NE.

The
highest temperature observed in Lincoln, NE in April 2014 was a near record high of 85F on April 12 (the record for that day is 86F). Just three days later, on April 15, the temperature fell to the coldest temperature of the month 19F which was also a record low for the date. This is also the latest in the Spring to have a temperature this cold with temperature data extending from 1887-2014, 128 years.

The April 2014 precipitation total
in Lincoln, NE was 3.50 inches, or 0.79
inches ABOVE normal.

The April 2014 precipitation of 3.50 inches was also more than the first three months combined (Jan. 0.24in + Feb 0.62in +Mar 0.13 in = 0.99 inches).

The Year to
date January 1 - April 30, 2014 precipitation total of 4.49 inches is 1.56 inches below the normal for this time period of 6.05 inches.Lincoln saw one minor snowfall of 0.5 inches on April 13, 2014. How unusual was this? During the past 115 years, there has been measurable snowfall during April in Lincoln 54 times and no measurable snowfall 61 times. So although perhaps unwelcome, the April 15 snowfall wasn't all that unusual. The seasonal snowfall total as of the end of April is only 18.2 inches which is well BELOW the normal of 25.9 inches.The
following graph shows the Lincoln, NE, April 2014 daily high and low
temperatures compared to normal daily highs and lows. The red line is the average high and the blue line is the average low. The top of each vertical bar is the observed high temperature and the bottom of the vertical bar is the observed low temperature for each day.